Healthy Obsessions: Zevia Diet Soda

I don't drink or smoke. I have never done drugs and I tend not to gamble. But I have one serious vice: I love soda. I love soda of all kinds and can drink it non-stop. In college I would drink 10-12 cans of regular, sugary soda a day! (And I wonder why I'm pre-diabetic) I switched to diet for awhile, but as a person with an interest in avoiding chemicals, all that aspartame wasn't really working for me either. Enter Zevia, my newest love and soda replacement. With a main ingredient of stevia, it's an excellent, natural and healthy replacement for soda. It tastes like regular coke, without the sugar, carbs, and chemicals (minus the BPA in the can lining, but that's a story for another day). It does not effect the glycemic load. So if you're like me and would put your face under a soda fountain and drink in sugary bliss until your teeth fall out and your pancreas explodes, Zevia is for you.

Stevia is a natural sugar replacement from South America called "sweet leaf" as the leaves of the plant are so sweet. In the summer, I actually grow this in my backyard and boil it, using the sweet water to add sweetness to tea and lemonade. The plant, which costs me around $2, lasts all summer, and proves much cheaper than buying the processed version in stores.

Stevia can be purchased at most health food stores including Whole Foods in the sugar section, in either liquid or powder form, the powder form usually containing fiber and marketed as a supplement. Stevia is just now gaining popularity, as the sugar and sugar substitute industry lobbied against stevia growers in the eighties and may have falsified reports regarding its safety. Thus it can only be sold in the United States as a supplement, despite the fact that it is merely just a natural sweetener. A word of warning: Stevia can be a little strong for some people, including my Dad who said, "I'd love it, except for that strange aftertaste." Check it out, see what you think!

Louis CK...Putting it All in Perspective

Other than the new "Wolverine" trailer, this is the greatest video I've seen in a very long time. A must see!

In Your Space

I'm one of those creepy people that has a strange winter hobby. With the trees bare and darkness engulfing the world much earlier, it allows me to peer inside the houses of people as I drive by. I like to quickly see what furniture they have, how they styled their rooms, and what their Christmas trees look like. This living space voyeurism was also present in college where I enjoyed visiting new and different dorm rooms, new homes where I babysat, and the various offices of teachers.

A new website has taken my strange living space fetish to a new level. At On My Desk, you can see how and where other people work. I especially find the work spaces of artists the most interesting, especially as I'm about to design my own mini studio space. It's just as good as the Lifehacker posts on people's computer desktops! Another great site for space voyeurs....The Selby's collection of artist studios/living spaces. Photo above of computer from powerpage.org

A Friend's Away Message...

If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help them.

Two of My Great Loves, One Great Video

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis by Between Two Ferns

Fly By Mooning

This Friday the moon will be not only full, but the closest it's been to earth in 15 years! As a lover of the moon, my little crabby ass will be out tonight gazing at the huge moon and hopefully getting some pictures.

"It will be a little over 350,000km away as it passes over the northern hemisphere, which is about 30,000km closer than usual.

If the sky is clear it will appear brighter and larger than usual, say astronomers.

Closest path

Friday's full moon could appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons this year, Nasa said.

The Moon's orbit is elliptical, meaning it does not follow a circular but rather an oval path."

Bow Down Before the One You Serve

In alarming news today, the government has reportedly been using a variety of music to torture prisoners, from my personal favorites of Nine Inch Nails and Sesame Street to Pantera, which would make me go insane almost immediately. According to the MSNBC post:

The tactic has been common in the U.S. war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. military commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, 'to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock.'

According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo Bay bragged he needed only four days to “break” someone by alternating 16 hours of music and lights with four hours of silence and darkness.

Excellent.

But while some musicians, like Lars and company from Metallica fight illegal downloads, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello, and Massive Attack, are working to get this practice stopped.

Thanks Nick!

THINGS BEARS LOVE!!! more here...
A hilarious site dear Nick just sent to me. He's a great Santa Claus!

Charting Your Fears

Not unlike the excellent Google Flu tracker, this new map from the Center for American Progress now tracks the human toll of climate change. If you were not already worried, this is a great way to start, and to see how your friends on the coasts are doing. You are also given the freedom to post your own weather events. It's especially a great tool for those with budding meteorology careers.

Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat

I’ve never been one that can handle a lot of unnecessary stress. Call it the OCD German roots or just my inability to stomach endless viewings of the Fox News network, but I, not unlike most people, am tired of the political back and forth. What a wonderful night it was when Obama cast his spell over America with his rallying and beautiful speech. It was in that moment, Democrat and Republican alike, that we were allowed to think about what’s really important. It was in that moment that we were allowed to get excited about our new government, to get excited about the possibilities. I might have even held a Republican’s hand. But now, just a little over a month later as we all check our inboxes for the pink slip of death, we have returned to the inane blather of before.

This is my first major life changing election as a true adult, and thus it’s the first one I really remember (I was involved in the whole Kerry thing, but after his loss, it seems to all have faded, and I try not to think about the Gore/Bush debacle). As a result, it also seems the most aggravating. But as the older family members of mine keep reminding me, and my history textbooks keep telling me, politics have been, and always will be incredibly annoying, made worse by our use of the internet, MSNBC, and all that other jazz that you already know about. Now that Obama is no doubt working tirelessly to figure all this stuff out and keep us together in some mish mash of our former glory, we’re hearing the socialist word again, the big government complaints, and the small government complaints, and the constant anxiety over regulation. I’d like to put all those fears to rest.

Even if Obama is a socialist, which he is not, we could not become a socialist country because of the failed nature of our system. In fact, no president it seems has really been able to accomplish anything of consequence since World War Two. Why? Four years, even eight years, is hardly enough time to enact real change, especially if you have a hefty opposing group sitting in your congress doing its job of checking and balancing your power and over two hundred years of messes to fix. Although I’m entirely hopeful and excited by Obama, it is ridiculous to assume that he will be able to totally and utterly flip this country into something entirely different and contrary to our nature without intense military force reminiscent of the Russian communists circa Stalin.

What about Bush? Didn’t he destroy our country given at least four years? He did, but a nice, clean foundation was built for him to work off of, starting with rise of consumerism and the “what-ev, I’ve got my ipod” mentality that brewed in the 80’s and 90’s and the smarmy conservativeness he claimed to have. And yes, some presidents do great things in the face of adversity, like the New Deal, or Kennedy’s dealings with the Bay of Pigs, and so forth and so on. But those were the days when the country cared, when the country was able to agree in those brief moments when something, anything had to be done. But those were also the times when the majority of the country was white, the majority of the country was Christian, and no one’s shoes were scuffed, even if their feet were run over, at least publicly. It was a time when you could go to church, both elitist and six pack Joe without wondering whether your neighbor was an idiot, a terrorist or, gasp!, gay and how as a result he would bring down the country.

Now, in a time when everyone is searching for an identity and so desperate to hold on to it, when issues are complicated by a multitude of world views, races, genders, and classes, no one can agree, no one can relent. Because relenting no longer makes you smart, it makes you wishy washy, a flip flopper, as Bush so loved to name Kerry.

And so it goes in America where we will never be small or big government, socialist or democratic, because we sit in an endless cycle of buzzwords. Clinton put some minor regulations in place, increasing the government’s “power.” The Bush administration decimated the government by ending all regulation, even on itself. We go back and forth, only perpetuating and sticking a finger in the bursting dam, as other holes leak around us. Instead, I hope Obama will be that rarity of a president who puts politics aside and does something, even if it’s a minor something, to fix the root system itself, and not just pander to fixing the last administration’s mistakes by rocking the boat the other direction. I think he has a pretty good shot, especially when conservatives like Bill Kristol seem just as fed up as me. As he says that the end of a recent New York Times piece,

“I can’t help but admire some of my fellow conservatives’ loyalty to the small-government cause. It reminds me of the nobility of Tennyson’s Light Brigade, as it charges into battle: “Theirs but to do and die.” Maybe it would be better, though, first to reason why.”

Perhaps we can begin something of a hybrid government system where we have just enough gas to keep ourselves individual and innovative, but try to do the right thing at the same time. Yes we can?

Today in Pretty Pictures

I have fallen in love with this house, designed by Marcel Breuer. The perfect mix of books and nature, non? You can see more if you pick up this month's Dwell magazine.

For Your Consideration: Let the Auto Companies Fail?

I've been well aware of the snarky, manipulative history perpetrated by the auto industry against public transportation back in the day before nearly every American owned at least one car, but No Impact Man posts a great run down from Commondreams.org.

From a post by Harvey Wasserman on CommonDreams.org:

In a 1922 memo that will live in infamy, GM President Alfred P. Sloan established a unit aimed at dumping electrified mass transit in favor of gas-burning cars, trucks and buses.

Just one American family in 10 then owned an automobile. Instead, we loved our 44,000 miles of passenger rail routes managed by 1,200 companies employing 300,000 Americans who ran 15 billion annual trips generating an income of $1 billion. According to Snell, "virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system."

But GM lost $65 million in 1921. So Sloan enlisted Standard Oil (now Exxon), Philips Petroleum, glass and rubber companies and an army of financiers and politicians to kill mass transit.

The campaigns varied, as did the economic and technical health of many of the systems themselves. Some now argue that buses would have transcended many of the rail lines anyway. More likely, they would have hybridized and complemented each other.

But with a varied arsenal of political and financial subterfuges, GM helped gut the core of America's train and trolley systems. It was the murder of our rail systems that made our "love affair" with the car a tragedy of necessity.

In 1949 a complex federal prosecution for related crimes resulted in an anti-trust fine against GM of a whopping $5000. For years thereafter GM continued to bury electric rail systems by "bustituting" gas-fired vehicles.

Then came the interstates. After driving his Allied forces into Berlin on Hitler's Autobahn, Dwight Eisenhower brought home a passion for America's biggest public works project. Some 40,000 miles of vital eco-systems were eventually paved under.

In habitat destruction, oil addiction, global warming, outright traffic deaths (some 40,000/year and more), ancillary ailments and wars for oil, the automobile embodies the worst ecological catastrophe in human history...

...So let's convert the company's infrastructure to churn out trolley cars, monorails, passenger trains, truly green buses.

FDR forced Detroit to manufacture the tanks, planes and guns that won World War 2 (try buying a 1944 Chevrolet!). Now let a reinvented GM make the "weapons" to win the climate war and energy independence.

It demands re-tooling and re-training. But GM's special role in history must now evolve into using its infrastructure to restore the mass transit system---and ecological balance---it has helped destroy.

2009 May Surpass 2008 as Best Movie Year

I think this speaks for itself:

The Problem with Busmans' Holidays

Do you work more than 40 hours a week (I'm including school here)? I have been working two jobs, sometimes three, with some school thrown in since I was 16 years old. It's been the norm for so long, nearly ten years, that I was beginning to forget what it was like to have some time off. It seems I am not alone. Americans, according to several new studies, are the most overworked, under-vacationed, and miserable people out there, one of the few industrialized countries that still does not have mandatory vacation days (I can see those de-regulators and my boss out there already getting their panties in a bunch). But wouldn't that be nice, if you could take those days, nay, had to take those days off work and still get paid?

I am now beginning to cut my work hours down and already notice a difference, a lightening of my mental load, and man, it sure feels nice. How much nicer would it be to not feel guilty about it? We've got a lot of restructuring to do for ourselves here in the states. I wonder how long it will be before we make it ok for us to take care of ourselves (if we ever get there).

Blog Love: Ecology of Absence

If you're not reading Ecology of Absence, initially started with regards to the North St. Louis revitalization project, then you should. Michael Allen's catalog of the St. Louis built environment is an interesting read for both St. Louisians and those of you far away alike. Each post pacts a motivating history lesson about architecture, St. Louis, and how cities work. This site will be a great asset in the years to come, not only collecting a vast amount of St. Louis history, but may also be responsible for saving some of our best buildings! His pictures alone are worth a visit. The photo is from a recent post of his.

I Love You Too Debbie Lieberstein

Things have been getting a bit plasticy and depressing around here, so for your enjoyment and mine, a belated, postmodern Halloween romp. :

"We call ourselves the living dead."

Government departments like the EPA are meant to protect us right? Not necessarily. What other purpose could they possibly have? A new article on Salon.com reports the awful truth. If you find it difficult to focus on a very long, yet good article, there are some highlights below. Should we push for more regulation, now that it may be too late for nearly all sections of our decrepit government? I think we already know my answer.

Beneath the Alvarados' house and those of their neighbors are shallow pools of groundwater that are polluted with tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, a chemical associated with cancer, liver and kidney disease... On cool or rainy days, when the Alvarados close the windows and shut off the air conditioning, a sweet chemical smell floods the house. When they eat dinner during these times, says Robert, 66, it's like tasting something acrid. "We drink bottled water but there's nothing we can do about the air except go outside and wait," says Lupe, 64.

"We call ourselves the living dead."

A survey by the University of Texas found that 91 percent of adults in the area experienced multiple illnesses.

Although it has conducted limited testing, the EPA acknowledges that it's possible for PCE vapor to rise from groundwater into people's living rooms and kitchens. Yet it says the Alvarados and their neighbors have nothing to fear.

"It feels like Stalin-era Russia, like the administration [Bush] set themselves up to decide what's allowable science and what isn't," says a high-ranking staff scientist at the EPA.

Public health officials say this attempt to derail the scientific evaluation of toxins is one of the most damning legacies of the Bush administration.

Although not widely known, the Integrated Risk Information System [IRIS] is a database that houses the scientific analyses of toxic chemicals. It's the foundation for most environmental regulations in the U.S. and beyond.

...because the human population is so diverse, there's always an inherent uncertainty of how one person may react to low levels of exposure versus his neighbor.

Not incidentally, under Gray's tenure at the EPA, the agency has lowered the economic value of human life by nearly $1 million, or 11 percent. A human life is now worth just under $7 million. Such calculations are critical when government determines whether a proposed regulation is financially cost-effective to enforce.

Concurrently, a preliminary EPA review of trichloroethylene (TCE), used by the military to degrease jets and metal parts, found that the chemical was up to 40 times more likely to cause cancer than was previously believed.

The plan that emerged calls for expanding the role of other federal agencies in determining which chemicals are assessed each year. It allows agencies like the Pentagon, Department of Energy and NASA to identify "mission critical" chemicals to the agency's operations.

Already, say critics, it's possible to determine how the influence of the Pentagon and other agencies will play out. In the past two years, since Gray has been at the agency, the EPA has produced more than 40 chemical assessments. Yet only four evaluations met OMB approval and were finalized. The EPA, which should be completing 50 per year to stay current, faces a backlog of 70 chemical assessments in need of updating.

Yet because IRIS is so obscure, it's doubtful there will be a national clamor demanding restoration of EPA control. And that makes it easy for politicians to maintain the status quo, says David Michaels, a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health.

Update: Obama Beats Bush in Plan to Slip in Under the Wire

As I noted before, President Bush is going to be doing some sneaky work behind the scenes for the next few months in order to pass some bad legislation for both stem cell research and the environment. But have no fear...MSNBC is already reporting that Obama is aware of the changes and has already taken steps to fix them.

"He Never Spoke Down to Children..."

If you were ever a giant Roald Dahl fan like me, you might want to read this interview with his wife and pick up the upcoming British Vogue to see Tim Burton and wife Helena Bonham-Carter acting out scenes from his books.

The Bad News on Plastics, the Good from Gore

One of my favorite blogs, Fake Plastic Fish, written by no-plastic enthusiast Beth Terry had a great post today regarding the safety of plastic.

1.) Polypropylene (#5) plastic is now proven to also leach into food and water. Previously, it was considered a food safe plastic, but as Beth points out, just because something hasn't been studied, does not mean it's safe. I'm going to use this post as a reason to buy my second Pyrex food set.

2.) A PVC plant caught on fire in Texas yesterday. The plant says that the smoke is "non-toxic." Eeep! Look at the picture and see if you agree.

3.) Why recycling isn't always the answer--the horror stories of electronic recycling in China.

And for some happy news....Al Gore reminds us that luckily:

"the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis."

George Bush To Do More Damage in His Remaining Days

There's not much I can say about the incredible election of Barack Obama other than, YES! THANK YOU!

But now that the fear of a deep dystopian end to America has disappeared for me in wake of his victory, we still have to be vigilant, especially since Georgie Boy is still in office. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post have written articles following the various measures that Bush is seeking to get inacted, none of them promising, many of them horrifying, that we need to be aware of as we wait for Obama to enter the White House.
Both articles acknowledge that these measure will take years to reverse.

YES WE CAN!

Adding Sarah Palin Doesn't= Understanding

John McCain claims that he understands women's issues and needs, but a closer look at his views on insurance and medical care show a different story. Below is a recent New York Times article that explains the problems that have/will undoubtedly rise from McCain's healthcare plans that include great investment in individual insurance plans.

WASHINGTON — Striking new evidence has emerged of a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage, according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers.

Some insurance executives expressed surprise at the size and prevalence of the disparities, which can make a woman’s insurance cost hundreds of dollars a year more than a man’s. Women’s advocacy groups have raised concerns about the differences, and members of Congress have begun to question the justification for them.

The new findings, which are not easily explained away, come amid anxiety about the declining economy. More and more people are shopping for individual health insurance policies because they have lost jobs that provided coverage. Politicians of both parties have offered proposals that would expand the role of the individual market, giving people tax credits or other assistance to buy coverage on their own.

“Women often fare worse than men in the individual insurance market,” said Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee.

Insurers say they have a sound reason for charging different premiums: Women ages 19 to 55 tend to cost more than men because they typically use more health care, especially in the childbearing years.

But women still pay more than men for insurance that does not cover maternity care. In the individual market, maternity coverage may be offered as an optional benefit, or rider, for a hefty additional premium.

Crystal D. Kilpatrick, a healthy 33-year-old real estate agent in Austin, Tex., said: “I’ve delayed having a baby because my insurance policy does not cover maternity care. If I have a baby, I’ll have to pay at least $8,000 out of pocket.”

In general, insurers say, they charge women more than men of the same age because claims experience shows that women use more health care services. They are more likely to visit doctors, to get regular checkups, to take prescription medications and to have certain chronic illnesses.

Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, an advocacy group that has examined hundreds of individual policies, said: “The wide variation in premiums could not possibly be justified by actuarial principles. We should not tolerate women having to pay more for health insurance, just as we do not tolerate the practice of using race as a factor in setting rates.”

Without substantial changes in the individual market, Ms. Greenberger said, tax credits for the purchase of insurance will be worth less to women because they face higher premiums.

The disparities are evident in premiums charged by major insurers like Humana, UnitedHealth, Aetna and Anthem, a unit of WellPoint; in prices quoted by eHealth, a leading online source of health insurance; and in rate tables published by state high-risk pools, which offer coverage to people who cannot obtain private insurance.

Humana, for example, says its Portrait plan offers “ideal coverage for people who want benefits like those provided by big employers.” For a Portrait plan with a $2,500 deductible, a 30-year-old woman pays 31 percent more than a man of the same age in Denver or Chicago and 32 percent more in Tallahassee, Fla.

In Columbus, Ohio, a 30-year-old woman pays 49 percent more than a man of the same age for Anthem’s Blue Access Economy plan. The woman’s monthly premium is $92.87, while a man pays $62.30. At age 40, the gap is somewhat smaller, with Anthem charging women 38 percent more than men for that policy.

Todd A. Siesky, a spokesman for WellPoint, declined to comment on the Anthem rates.

Thomas T. Noland Jr., a senior vice president of Humana, said: “Premiums for our individual health insurance plans reflect claims experience — the use of medical services — which varies by gender and age. Females use more medical services than males, and this difference is most pronounced in young adults.”

In addition, Mr. Noland said, “Bearing children increases other health risks later in life, such as urinary incontinence, which may require treatment with medication or surgery.”

Most state insurance pools, for high-risk individuals, also use sex as a factor in setting rates.

Thus, for example, in Dallas or Houston, women ages 25 to 29 pay 39 percent more than men of the same age when they buy coverage from the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool.

In Nebraska, a 35-year-old woman pays 32 percent more than a man of the same age for coverage from the state insurance pool.

Representative Xavier Becerra, Democrat of California, said that “if men could have kids,” such disparities would probably not exist.

Elizabeth J. Leif, a health insurance actuary in Denver who helps calculate rates for Nebraska and other states, said: “Under the age of 55, women tend to be higher utilizers of health care than men. I am more conscious of my health than my husband, who will avoid going to the doctor at all costs.”

“Many state insurance laws require insurance policies to cover complications of pregnancy, even if they do not cover maternity care,” Ms. Leif said. Insurers say those complications generate significant costs.

Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, asked, “How can insurers in the individual market claim to meet the needs of women if maternity coverage is so difficult to get, so inadequate and expensive?”

Cecil D. Bykerk, president of the Society of Actuaries, a professional organization, said that if male and female premiums were equalized, women would pay less but “rates for men would go up.”

Mr. Bykerk, a former executive vice president of Mutual of Omaha, said, “If maternity care is included as a benefit, it drives up rates for everybody, making the whole policy less affordable.”

The individual insurance market is notoriously unstable. Adults often find it difficult or impossible to get affordable coverage in this market. In most states, insurers can charge higher premiums or deny coverage to people with health problems.

In job-based coverage, civil rights laws prohibit sex discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says employers cannot charge higher premiums to women than to men for the same benefits, even if women as a class are more expensive. Some states, including Maine, Montana and New York, have also prohibited sex-based rates in the individual insurance market.

Mila Kofman, the insurance superintendent in Maine, said: “There’s a strong public policy reason to prohibit gender-based rates. Only women can bear children. There’s an expense to that. But having babies benefits communities and society as a whole. Women should not have to bear the entire expense.”

And that expense can be substantial.

In Iowa, a 30-year-old woman pays $49 a month more than a man of the same age for one of Wellmark’s Select Enhanced plans. Her premium, at $151, is 48 percent higher than the man’s.

Wouldn't This Make Work More Interesting...

So Freakin' Cool: Polaroid Emulator

Finally there's something cool that only Mac people can access: A polaroid emulator. This fancy item is not only totally fun to use (you actually have to wait for the picture to fade into itself!) but it turns out some really cool things!

Below is a picture in development with the open program on my desktop. The fun of this alone is worth the five second download.











And this is the final product. Not as good as the actual photo, but fun regardless.

Stephen King on America

Ever since I read Stephen King's "The Gunslinger" in one sitting, I've been a huge fangirl, of both his books, and his interviews. He's a great read in either sector, and Salon.com recently posted a fab interview with him on "The Stand" and our new apocalyptic-like current crisis. Some of the best lines from the article?

On America:
"Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we've always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us."

On the afterlife:
"Think of it this way. I think of the brain as this great, big, crenelated library with many rooms, billions and billions of books, rooms without number, but at the very end of all those rooms, there's a little tiny box that says "pull lever in case of emergency," because that's the door out, and when you go out, you get pretty much what you expected, because some chemical in your brain is programmed to give you that particular dream at the very end. If you're expecting [H.P. Lovecraft's] Yogg Sothoth, there he'll be, along with the 900 blind fiddlers, or whatever it is."

The Effects of Climate Change: In Pictures

Follow the link to see all the award winning images of climate change.

The Mechanics of Short-Selling

Ever wonder exactly how short selling works? This great video goes through it in easy to understand steps. Who can deny the stick figure when it comes to learning?

Getting naked in short selling from Marketplace on Vimeo.

Deadly Sugar Bunnies and Chicken Feet Vines

Photographer Liz Wolfe has some pretty cool images, taking me back to the days when I was afraid of the Easter Bunny. Now I see what my eight year-old self felt, but couldn't define. You can see more of her amazing, funny, and horrific candy coated images at her website. The photo above can be found there.

Can You Survive Foodstamps?

No one really ever assumes that living on foodstamps is easy, but a new challenge shows just how difficult it actually is.

More On Eerily, Ew Food News

I promise, from here on out, I will stop drinking diet soda. I figured this stuff was bad, but now that there's proof that it kills sperm with great ease and accuracy, it only begs the question: What is this doing to my body internally?

Does Fructose Make You Fat?

YES!

Sometimes It Hurts to Think

It's kinda funny how everyone says that large scale programs like universal healthcare and education improvements just won't ever happen. That may be true, but not for the reasons you think. 

For $100 Billion you can have Universal Health Care for all people without it in the U.S.

For $35 Billion, you can have preschool for all children in the U.S.

For $10 Billion you can implement all the security recommendations by the 9/11 commission that still have gone undone. 

For $700 Billion, you can try to fix the mistakes of the Bush administration and the greedy.

Cow Replaces Dog as Man's Best Friend

Renewable energy isn't just about solar and wind. Several dairy farms throughout the state of Vermont, are capturing the methane that comes from cow manure to produce electricity for the surrounding homes and businesses. "We saw this as an economic and environmental management too; It's helped to diversify our farm," one farmer said.

According to the New York Times article, "cow waste produces 250 to 300 kilowatts of electricity daily, enough to power 300 to 350 homes, according to the utility," earning around $200,000 of profit for the farmer. In addition to the profit and the added electricity on the grid, the farms are also recycling all of the cow waste, instead of just adding it to the waste stream.

Once the methane is separated from the waste using a large digester set at 101 degrees, it is further separated into solids and liquids; the liquids becoming fertilizer for the farm, the solids returned to the barn floor where they act as bedding. This has saved the farms thousands of dollars on cow bedding alone. They also take in leftover food from local businesses, most notably ice cream from local Ben and Jerry stores to add to their bio-gas digesting efforts. You can read more about this fascinating method in the article. As this innovative idea spreads across the mid-west, now used in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, Missouri will hopefully catch on and make use of our own farm waste.

Some Chemicals Are Just Bad. Get Over It.

Michael Pollan recently said you shouldn't "eat any food that's incapable of rotting." In a similar vein, my Grandma, in response to my diet Coke-addicted, pregnant aunt said, "If you're not supposed to have it while you're pregnant, you aren't ever supposed to have it." These two words of wisdom follow me throughout my day as I sometimes struggle to ignore the beacon of fatty, delightful neon pink light shining down on my hunger as I drive past the closest Taco Bell. But high fructose corn syrup or aspartame in our food isn't the only issue.

The BBC online posted yet another article about how much synthetic chemicals in cosmetics are changing our lives, and the prognosis is grim. Yet another reason, to trust Grandma and her anti-diet Coke agenda. Although many European countries have banned nearly 500 dangerous chemicals, the United States has turned a blind eye to the issue as usual.

This new article comes right after the FDA announced that BPA, the hormone disrupting chemical notoriously found in baby bottles and Nalgene bottles is considered safe, despite the fact that they admit that some danger still exists with it's use. Why are we so wedded to keeping these products on the market instead of pressing for safer alternatives?

Several organizations have sprung up to help spread the word and convince the government that this is a valid issue. You can visit the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Database to see how dangerous your cosmetics are and seek out safer alternatives. They include not only make-up, but also everything from toothpaste to contact solution, and help sort out the real non-toxic stuff from the falsely labeled "organic" or "natural" ones.

Although you could easily argue that any number of things in this life are toxic and probably already killing you, I figure, it doesn't hurt to try to avoid certain things. You never know, maybe one day we'll wake up and most of these bad things will have disappeared, simply because we requested them too: with both our voices and our pocketbooks.

Melancolic Souls

Sometimes, somebody says it better than you ever could. Today (or back in 2001), that someone is Ian Frazier:

"I sat in my motel room for several days, getting gloomier and gloomier. Rain fell constantly. The month was August, and the rainy twilight lasted from four in the morning until midnight. Outside my window Bering Sea waves the color of wet cement landed on the riprap shoreline with thuds. To say that Nome, Alaska, is mainly mud with pieces of rusted iron sticking out of it is to be unfair to that interesting place, but so it appeared to me at the time. On my motel-room bed I read obscure books to the sound of the rain and the waves, taking occasional breaks to stare at the ceiling. I saw almost no one, never cracked a smile, and was as sorry for myself as I could be. After three or four days, completely bummed out, I went to the airport and flew home. I arrived pale, monosyllabic, and wonderfully refreshed."

Needless to say, I'm really really excited for fall to come, and with it Halloween!

Interesting Article Day

1. Farmer's hurt by rising corn and feed prices now mix M&M's and potato chips into their cow feed...YUCK!!
2. Wind energy thwarted by a lack of adequate power grids....get us some good leadership!
3. The "Anti-Restaurants" of upper New York...very cool.
   

Favorite Quote of the Day

"[Brinkley] speaks in the breathy, enthusiastic delivery of a librarian reading aloud to someone in the third grade, and she smiles almost constantly. She can talk through the smile—which reveals both top and bottom teeth at all times—almost like a ventriloquist." New York

One of the Sexiest Things I've Ever Seen

What happens when love and art mix? Find out here.

No Impact Man Impacts Me With His Writing

Colin over at No Impact Man, a writer who spent a year creating "net zero" waste with his family, never fails to disappoint with his informative, inspiring and hopeful posts. Below is from his post today.

"I talk so much about waste of resources here on this blog, but what's really important is not waste of resources but waste of life.

We'll waste a lot of life if we keep wasting so many planetary resources--climate change, oceans fished out, lakes dead from acid rain, children with asthma.

And there is waste of life that accompanies the waste of resources. Spending four work months a year paying for or driving alone in our cars strikes me as a waste of life and of resources. Spending time paying off credit card debt for Christmas presents instead of time with the kids strikes me as a waste of life and of resources.

But there is also the waste of life that comes from not having enough resources. Not having enough food or water is a waste of human life. Having to struggle to get by, without being able to pursue some of life's higher goals, is a waste of life.

Not having time or energy or health enough to sing is a waste of life.

So there is a balance to be struck, right? What is the balance that ensures we don't waste life through either overuse or underuse of resources?

Building another coal power station in the United States so we can crank up our ACs a little more or get 600 instead of 500 channels of TV is a waste of life through overuse of resources.

But strangely, not building the same coal power plant in a developing country where kids can't learn to read at night because of not having electric light is a waste of life through underuse of resources.

Because for all our talk of energy efficiency and renewable energy, don't we need to figure out what it is we're using all this energy for? When we're indulging and when we're helping?

As much as anything that will save us, I think, is the need to redefine the good life. It's not more stuff and endless energy. That's one thing.

But maybe even more importantly, if it's wasting life rather than wasting resources that we're worrying about, we need to figure out how to deliver that redefined good life to everyone.

Otherwise sustainability is nothing more than the luxuriant ideal of the elite.

Whatev.

I'm riffing. I'm at the beach in Greenport, NY at the beginning of my carless vacation and tomorrow I hand the draft of my book in."

Utne Exposes The True Cost of Leather

Utne recently posted an article that exposes the true cost of leather, a somewhat ubiquitous item found on the feet of most people, except, you know, vegans. But while most non-leather sporters tend to complain about the effects that leather production/popularity has on animals, surprisingly, the toll it takes on both the environment and the human workers toiling everyday to make these items seems far worse. It's surprising that more red paint's been thrown on fur (something usually found on the backs of those richer than most) than on something that almost all of us can claim to own.

For the future, if I ever purchase some leather I'm going to make sure it's recycled, either from a thrift store or from designers like this or this. Or maybe someday I can afford some of Natalie Portman's vegan shoes....probably not. :-)

It's Always About Oil

With the excitement of the Olympics and the impending election, it seems that no one has been paying attention to the recent Russian/Georgian conflict, myself included. A recent post on Dealbreaker.com, clears up any questions and provides a great run down on what's happening. Unfortunately, in addition to the leftover ethnic and political issues from the Cold War, another major factor in this conflict is oil. As it turns out, Georgia is a major pipeline, the only one, that connects the West to the East's store's of both natural gas and crude. Although all the commentators admit that Russia will by no means take drastic action to isolate the West, it's still interesting and frightening that oil has played yet another crucial rule in war, just as it has in Iraq. As one of my favorite science fiction characters would say, "The world has moved on." Sadly though, none of our leaders have. We can only hope that they will start to lead us in the right direction before it's too late. Photo taken from http://express.howstuffworks.com/

Too Much Naval Gazing?

A writer on my fav feminist blog recently wrote a great post about the lessons we should have learned from the many school shootings America has experienced and why we never seem to learn them. At one particular point, she responds to the story of one shooter's obsession with his weight:

And this is where I really do wish we valued brains a little more in this country, because there REALLY SHOULD BE BETTER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT. But the same way the first American Dream moved us all out to the suburbs only to strand us there alone with our cable and ice cream and placid lawns and sad fleshy dead-eyed moms who can't bother driving us anywhere, this new American Dream of fastidiously monitoring our intake and expenditure of energy units is really just another big distraction from the real problem...

As a blogger, this is an interesting question as blogging itself is exactly that; a way to "[monitor] our intake and expenditure." My dad always told me that my generation was full of "naval gazers," people so caught up in their own drama with their MySpace pages, blogs, cell phones, and reality T.V. that they'd never care, and that nothing of consequence...other than lint...would ever get accomplished or be found. As the world gets more and more complicated with encroaching fuel, food, financial, and climate crisis', and things become more and more corrupt yet separated from our daily lives by technology and consumerism, we want to get away and are desperately trying to find ourselves. We know something is missing but don't know where to look. But some people, like Colin at No Impact Man, the ladies (and gentlemen) at Jezebel, and Beth at Fake Plastic Fish are turning the sometimes overly personal, ever saccharine apparatus of blogging into a great tool to reach others and make a change, exposing the real problems facing us. What makes them different is that they aren't just telling us about the problems but are becoming the solution.

Everything You Need to Know About Hybrids

NPR posted an article today that describes upcoming hybrid vehicle technology, and how it differs from your typical Prius. According to the article, upcoming plug in hybrids will be an excellent choice for commuters, the plug in electricity supply powering the battery in upwards of 30 minutes. Unlike current hybrid technology, the gas engine on the car will act as a back-up to the battery where in current models, the battery relies on the charge generated by the gas engine. The most interesting part of the article touches on the great fear that many show towards this new grid-tied technology and its effect on carbon emissions. The article reports:

"A 2007 study by the Electric Power Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council found the potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality if the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles was widespread.

The study projected that in 2050, there would be more than an adequate supply of grid-supplied electricity for transportation uses. If PHEVs were in widespread use by then, it predicted that greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by the equivalent of removing 82.5 million passenger cars from roadways. And it suggested that petroleum consumption could be reduced by up to 4 million barrels per day."

Although they do recognize in the article that the United States' antiquated grid system could pose serious integration problems, the article is hopeful and makes me excited for the next two years.